


Waiting for the Song to Start

by midoriverte



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Hidekane Week, Hidekaneweek2016, M/M, Swearing, brief mentions of alcohol, day 2: band au, depiction of a panic attack, some mentions of sex but everything is pg13, this all makes it sound very dark but i promise it's not lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 17:45:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7854895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midoriverte/pseuds/midoriverte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hidekane Week day 2: Band AU</p>
<p>Kaneki didn’t know how he let Furuta talk him into things. His co-worker had literally never had an idea for a night out that had ended in him having fun...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting for the Song to Start

Kaneki didn’t know how he let Furuta talk him into things. His co-worker had literally never had an idea for a night out that had ended in him having fun. They usually ended with him injured, actually.

He was already in a bad mood. When Furuta had come to pick him up he came out in a relatively nice button-up shirt and his “casual” work pants.

“What’s with _this_?” Furuta said dramatically gesturing at him.

“What’s with _what_?” Kaneki demanded, already regretting agreeing to spend any time with him outside work.

“Everything about you, aren’t you dressed a little formal?”

“These are the only kind of clothes I own.”

“Yikes,” Furuta said.

“Oh, fuck off.”

Furuta grinned wickedly and snatched the glasses off Kaneki’s face.

“What are you _doing_?”

Furuta responded by pinching his cheek, “The glasses hide your cute little baby face.”

Kaneki smacked his hand away.

“At least put in contacts, no one will hit on you if you hide your assets like that.”

Kaneki snatched his glasses back, but did go in to put in contacts because he knew Furuta would never shut up unless he just did it. They had an argument about his glasses at least once a week.

“I’ll be waiting in the car!” he shouted.

Kaneki scowled and slammed his front door.

He threw open Furuta’s car door a few moments later (and closed it gently because he didn’t want to destroy someone else’s property, even if he hated him).

“Ready to go, Harry Potter?”

“I hate you.”

“That’s the spirit,” Furuta said, starting the car up.

“So who else is coming with us?” Kaneki asked.

“No one.”

“What do you mean, _no one_?”

“Just you and me, bossman.”

“I thought you said other people were going to come with us!”

“Yeah they were thinking of it, but I told them you were coming and suddenly they all had other plans,” he grinned evilly at Kaneki. “Some people find you intimidating.”

Kaneki had no idea if he was lying or not about people not wanting to come because of him, but he hated that it was possibly true.

It wasn’t that he actively tried to be intimidating around the office, but he knew a lot of people were uncomfortable around him. And his boss had told him his smile was creepy in the middle of a meeting. It had occurred to Kaneki later that it was wildly inappropriate and he should have taken it up with HR, but at the time he had been too focussed on playing off his hurt feelings.

Which had probably made him seem creepier, come to think of it.

Fuming at the thought of spending his entire evening with Furuta, at the thought of every person in the office who smiled uncomfortably when he tried to engage them in conversation, and at the thought of wearing the contacts that were already dry and uncomfortable in his eyes all night, Kaneki crossed his arms and glared out the window.

“That’s a good look on you,” Furuta smiled and put a hand on Kaneki’s thigh.

“If you invade my personal space one more time,” Kaneki said slowly. “I will rip off your hands.”

“And you wonder why people find you off-putting.”

The bar Furuta took him to was cramped, dark, and somehow kind of damp, which Kaneki didn’t want to think about. The music was already irritating him and they had only been there for five minutes.

It was also extremely crowded. He couldn’t move at all without running into someone, and the people were also kind of damp, somehow.

Someone very firmly grabbed his ass.

“I want to leave,” he announced.

“Well, I have the car and I say you’re stuck here,” Furuta said. “Here, have a drink,” he reached out and seemed to produce one from thin air.

Pressing it into Kaneki’s hand, he leaned in close and whisper-shouted: “Just enjoy the show.”

His breath tickled Kaneki’s ear, Kaneki smacked him.

Furuta just laughed.

Kaneki downed the drink and nearly gagged.

After about half an hour, they thankfully announced that the band was done its set and another band was going to start playing.

“Thank God,” Kaneki said, turning to Furuta and joining in the applause to be polite, “They were terri-”

To his utter fury, he found Furuta was no longer beside him.

“Goddamn him!” he muttered. He was starting to get a headache already and it was hot and claustrophobic. He suddenly felt his heartrate speed up and cold sweat on his palms.

Well, this was about the last thing he needed.

He wanted to find a bathroom, somewhere where he could get away from the crowd and be relatively alone and in the relative quiet. But he couldn’t see it through the dark and the flashing lights and the crowd.

He didn’t _need_ Furuta here, he just didn’t want to be alone with so many strangers and as much as he tried he couldn’t make him out anywhere.

Now he was really starting to panic. He had no idea how to get out of here and people were surrounding him and it was so _hot_ -

The next band was taking the stage and people burst into applause. The noise echoed off the stone walls and he tried to move back to where the exit probably was but the crowd was so _dense_ and they kept pushing him to the front until he was ridiculously close to the stage.

He realised he wouldn’t be getting out of here anytime soon, so he took some deep but shaky breaths to calm himself. He rolled up his sleeves in a feeble attempt to feel less like he was being suffocated by his own clothing.

_Just focus on the music_ , _even if it’s terrible just focus on it_.

He only vaguely registered the voice of the lead singer, introducing the band, before the music started.

The band wasn’t much better than the last one, but Kaneki was standing to the left of the stage near the guitarist who seemed to be the band’s only saving grace. It was actually easy to tune in to the guitar over the rest of the sound. He breathed slowly and evenly and closed his eyes to tune everything else out but the sound of the lead guitar.

After a few moments he was finally calm enough that he felt like he was able to open his eyes.

He located the lead guitarist who had unknowingly brought him down from his panic.

His first thought was that the guy was certainly _bright_. Maybe it was just because the room was so dim, and he was standing right under a bright light that was apparently already causing him to sweat, but he certainly stood out from the rest of the band, who were wearing drab black clothing. In fact, it almost made Kaneki wonder if he was even part of the band at all.

He was wearing a bright yellow and black t-shirt and a denim jacket with rolled-up sleeves that was a rather offensive shade of green. It would have looked to Kaneki like he had just grabbed random clothes from his closet, but his shoes were yellow and green to match so it looked like it was a deliberate choice.

Even his hair was bleached a bright blonde, though his roots were showing through in a way that suggested he hadn’t touched it up in a while.

But what really drew Kaneki in was his bright smile. While the rest of the band was scowling fashionably, the man was grinning and bouncing along with the music in a way that made it seem like there was nowhere else he would rather be than in this crappy little bar.

He was also wearing tight, _tight_ pants.

Fuck.

Kaneki bit his lip unconsciously. There was no denying that his unknowing savior was pretty cute.

He figured maybe he didn’t mind so much that he had been forced to the front of the stage.

The guitarist happened to catch his eye, Kaneki looked away quickly. He was sure the man was just looking at the crowd in general but he didn’t want to grab unwanted attention.

Maybe not so unwanted.

_Don’t think that_ , Kaneki reprimanded himself sternly.

Still, no harm in just looking, as long as he made sure the man didn’t notice.

After about the fifth time the man caught his eye, he was realizing he was pretty bad at being lowkey about his staring. The guitarist grinned broadly and winked at him and he looked away quickly again. How could he possibly see him in this crowd?

Maybe he was just winking to the crowd in general.

The thought made him oddly bitter.

“Wow,” said a voice from behind him, and Kaneki nearly grabbed the person who swung their arm around his shoulder and put their mouth right up to his ear.

“ _Furuta_!” he shouted, furious. “I told you not to touch me. And what’s ‘wow’?”

“Just remarking on how badly you want to fuck that guitarist,” Furuta grinned. “Am I so easily replaced?”

“Can’t replace what you don’t have,” Kaneki wasn’t sure that comeback made sense, but the mere suggestion of being with Furuta made him ill. “And I don’t want to fuck him,” he added hastily.

“Sure,” Furuta said. “What if I told you I knew someone in the band and can take you to meet them after the show?”

Kaneki wanted to argue but instead said “Really?” in a voice that was too eager.

Furuta grinned, “Of course.”

Kaneki stood outside what he supposed was what passed for a dressing room. He was pretty sure it was once a really big closet.

It was also pretty damp.

Kaneki was beginning to wonder if he should just leave and spare himself the embarrassment. But the choice was taken from him when a door in the dark and dingy hallway burst open and the band burst in.

The guitarist stood out even more brightly in this hallway, if possible. Their eyes met, Kaneki gave a shaky and nervous smile, and the other man grinned when he saw him.

Kaneki managed to notice the colour of the man’s eyes despite how dark it was. They were the most gorgeous shade of brown he had even seen. They also seemed to be sparkling a little.

Kaneki felt himself grow a little hot around the collar and he felt utterly ridiculous. Was so he so pathetically, desperately lonely that he would get a crush on the first person to smile at him?

Yes. Absolutely yes.

Furuta pressed a little foil packet in his hand.

“Y-you-,” he stammered as he realized that Furuta had just handed him some condoms.

“Gotta be safe,” he said wisely as Kaneki tried to shove them in his pocket before anyone could see.

The band filed into the dressing room and Kaneki and Furuta followed suit.

Kaneki ended up sitting across from the guitarist but didn’t have a chance to really speak to him. He didn’t even have a chance to introduce himself, and to his utter fury Furuta didn’t bother to introduce him to the guitarist. He just wanted to know his _name_.

Kaneki scowled as he was forced to sit through conversation between Furuta and the drummer filled with inside jokes he didn’t understand. He and the guitarist kept sneaking secret glances at each other.

Finally, after a significant look at Kaneki, the guitarist got up and announced he was going into the hall for some fresh air, and gave Kaneki a significant look that told him he should follow suit.

“I am too,” Kaneki said. No one actually seemed to notice or care so he escaped quite easily.

He followed him a little further down the hallway until they got far enough away from the door that they could talk without being heard.

“Hey,” Kaneki said.

“Hey,” the other man replied.

“I like your music,” Kaneki said.

“Thanks. I like your biceps,” he replied with a grin.

Kaneki sputtered incoherently and self-consciously crossed his arms and uncrossed them, suddenly very aware of the presence of his arms.

“Th-thanks,” he said finally.

“My name’s Hideyoshi Nagachika,” he said, sparing Kaneki from his embarrassment and from having to ask for the name himself.

“K-Kaneki Ken,” he said awkwardly. He was so desperate to talk to Nagachika just moments before, but he hadn’t actually planned what he wanted to say.

“I’m glad you like my music,” Nagachika said, prompting him gently.

“Yeah!” Kaneki said, a little too loudly, and winced as his voice echoed in the dingy little hallway. “I, um, normally don’t come to things like this but my fr- Furuta made me,” (it would be a cold day in hell before Kaneki admitted Furuta was his friend to anyone) “But I’m glad I came just because I got to hear you play.”

Oh God, that sounded horrifically cheesy.

Nagachika, however, grinned widely. “That might actually be one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me.”

Kaneki didn’t know what to say to that. Luckily, Nagachika went on, “I actually normally don’t play with these guys. One of my friends is in the band and their guitarist got sick yesterday so I filled in as a favour.”

“That explains why you’re so much more colourful than them.”

Nagachika laughed, and it echoed in the hallway. Suddenly Kaneki was very proud of himself for saying something clever enough to make him laugh.

He hoped he could do that again soon.

“Yeah, I thought they were going to murder me when they saw what I was wearing. But I just don’t do all black outfits,” he gave Kaneki an appraising look and said “I think you’d fit right in, though.”

“Uh…,” Kaneki said. He wasn’t sure if he was being made fun of or not. He suddenly regretted immensely that he only owned black clothing. Except for that one really dark blue shirt.

“Hey, it looks good on you,” Nagachika said. “Like… _really_ good.”

This was the second time in only a few minutes that Nagachika had complimented his appearance, and Kaneki had absolutely no idea how to deal with that.

Oblivious to Kaneki’s imminent spontaneous combustion (or ignoring it), Nagachika went on. “Anyway, I’m…pretty glad I came here tonight too. To be honest, I kept looking at you when I was playing. I don’t know if you noticed,” he added with a nervous laugh.

“Well I did see you looking at me and I really hoped it was on purpose.”

Nagachika grinned. Kaneki felt his heart flutter. He was too happy that Nagachika seemed to find his awkward conversation skills endearing to be worried about how awkward he was being.

“Nagachika-,” he started.

“Just call me Hide,” he interrupted gently.

“ _Hide_ ,” his heart pounding. “Um, I’m not very good at this but w-would you like to go out sometime?”

“I’d love to,” Kaneki released a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding until then.

Hide’s grin turned mischievous and he said. “You know, I want to say ‘I’d thought you’d never ask’ but to be honest I’m surprised you didn’t ask for something more than a date-,” Hide gestured at Kaneki’s pants pocket. He looked down and, to his horror, noticed that the foil wrapper of the condom Furuta had shoved at him earlier was sticking out of the pocket he had hastily shoved it into.

He was going to _murder_ Furuta.

“Th-that’s not,” he stammered. “That wasn’t my idea! Furuta forced these on me and I just- that’s not me. I mean I don’t ask for sex from people I’ve just met, not that there’s anything wrong with that! But it’s not my thing, you know, not that I wouldn’t want to with you but not like, right now-,” Kaneki was babbling out of sheer embarrassment and he really, really wanted to make himself stop but couldn’t seem to find the strength to.

Hide’s eyebrows were raised in an expression of pure amusement. He gently put his hand on the side of Kaneki’s face.

That shut him up quickly.

“Hey,” Hide said gently. “Don’t worry about it.” For the second time that night, not that Kaneki would ever tell him, Hide managed to bring him down from panicking.

He leaned in closer, his thumb tracing circles on Kaneki’s cheek, and said. “And, uh, not to tease you, but I mean I feel the same. ‘Not that I wouldn’t want to, but not like, right now.’”

Kaneki’s brain was short-circuiting, “That’s fair,” he mumbled.

“However, I wouldn’t object to kissing you, if you’d like?”

Kaneki saw that Hide’s cheeks were dusted pink, he was nervous too. He nodded slowly, unable to form words to express just how much he would, in fact, like Hide to kiss him.

Hide closed the gap and gently put his lips on Kaneki’s. Kaneki was entirely unsure about what to do with his body. He felt a warmth radiating from where Hide’s lips touched his gently and did his best to allow himself to loosen up. He let his lips move in a way that he hoped complimented Hide’s efforts and gingerly placed his hands on Hide’s waist, as though he was sure Hide would throw him off if he pressed too hard.

Hide withdrew. He looked up at Kaneki, eyes sparkling, and bit his lip.

“C-can we do that again?” Kaneki asked.

“ _God_ yes,” Hide moved in again, kissing Kaneki with more force this time. His hand found its way to the back of Kaneki’s head and he tangled his fingers in his hair gently.

The kiss was more insistent this time, more urgent. His hand in Kaneki’s hair felt _really nice_ and Kaneki gripped him tighter. Hide gasped a little in a way that sounded like he rather enjoyed that.

Kaneki nearly fainted when he felt Hide’s tongue flick against his mouth but, well, tonight had been full of risk-taking for him anyway. He opened his mouth hesitantly and Hide slipped his tongue into his mouth and in some ways it was kind of weird but with Hide it felt amazing.

He had no conscious memory of doing so, but they had somehow ended up with Hide’s back against the wall, taking breaths in gasps but unwilling to be away from each other long. Hide’s hands were freely exploring Kaneki’s back and he wanted to get as close to him as possible. Kaneki pressed against him insistently and Hide gasped again and, tentatively, Kaneki pulled away from him and moved to kiss his neck.

“ _Oh my God_ ,” Hide groaned even though Kaneki had only pressed his lips against his neck gently and Kaneki inwardly preened that this had been a very good decision.

Kaneki kissed him more forcefully. Daringly, he nipped at Hide’s neck a little.

“Oh my God,” Hide repeated, he had grabbed the front of Kaneki’s shirt in his fist, his other hand gripping Kaneki’s waist with such force that Kaneki was sure it would leave a bruise.

Kaneki was very much okay with that.

The door to the dressing room burst open further down the hallway and the two of them leapt back from each other as though burned. In Hide’s case, this meant he smacked the back of his head against the wall.

“Are you okay?” Kaneki stammered. His hands, which had been so confidently gripping Hide a moment before, fluttered uselessly, unsure how to help.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Hide smiled up at him. “Better than fine, actually.”

Kaneki blushed.

“Kaneki!” Furuta called down the hallway. “Drop your boytoy, we’re leaving!”

“Fuck off!” Kaneki snapped.

“Is that how you speak to your ride home?”

Kaneki massaged his temples in frustration and Hide laughed.

“Let me put my number in your phone and you can go,” Hide smiled. “If it’s all right with you, I would _very much_ like to do that again.”

“I would too,” Kaneki smiled as he handed Hide his phone. “And maybe, you know, add in getting coffee or going to a movie or something first.”

“I’d like that,” Hide said, giving him his phone back.

“Kaneki! I’m leaving you behind!”

Kaneki sighed deeply.

“Stay strong,” Hide said with a laugh.

“I’ll try,” Kaneki smiled.

Hide caught him in a brief hug before he turned to leave. Furuta and the members of the band wolf-whistled.

“What are we, middle-schoolers?” Kaneki grumbled, pulling away from Hide reluctantly with a flaming red face.

“Well, _they_ certainly seem to be.”

Kaneki left Hide’s company for the much less agreeable company of Furuta, who at least had the decency to wait until they were in the car to start pestering him about Hide.

“ _So_ , how did it go?”

“It went fine,” Kaneki said shortly.

“Come on, that’s all I get after practically setting you up?”

“Yep.”

Kaneki took out his phone and found Hide’s name. He knew there was some dumb rule about the amount of time you should wait before texting someone back but he didn’t care. He preferred to text Hide while the memory of how much he enjoyed Kaneki’s company was still fresh in his mind.

_Hey_ , he wrote, _I had a really good time tonight. Want to meet up next Saturday for coffee around 2? I know a really good place_.

He was relieved to see that Hide texted him back quickly.

_sounds good to me!! i’ll see you then :)_

Kaneki grinned as he received another message from Hide.

_keep that condom handy btw, you might need it ;)_

Kaneki nearly dropped his phone as Hide sent another message that just said “ _lol_ ”. He didn’t know Hide well enough yet to know if he was just kidding.

He didn’t know if he hoped he wasn’t.

“Man, I have no idea what you’re texting him but I am _so_ going to break into your phone while you’re sleeping to find out.”

“Too bad my phone has a password on it.”

“Aww he thinks I don’t know his password.”

Making a mental note to change his password immediately, he sent Hide one final message:

_You’re so embarrassing_.

He stuffed his phone in his pocket, he’d read Hide’s reply when he was far away from Furuta’s prying eyes.

Though as much as he hated to admit it, he was pretty glad he’d let Furuta drag him out tonight.


End file.
